Happy B-day Diana and Hector!

Photo: Our lovely Mom, DIANA Mendoza (Bday gal), Rik and my other sis' Luana Mendoza at the Premiere of Escape De Los Santos (Dec. 2005)

__________________
Happy Birthday to my sister Diana!
She is celebrating her 19th year on planet earth! WOW!
Congrats, we miss you and hope you have a hell of a day!
I'll see you soon!




Photo: Hector, QT and me-self.
____________________
AND Happy Belated Birthday to our Agent and friend Hector Hernandez...
I really need to compile a birthday list! I am the worst when it comes to Birthdays!!!
F***!
ANYWAYS... HAPPY B-B-day! his birthday WAS on the 15th... :-o

AND, just to let our friends know, (so they won't feel like idiots later on... :-) MY Bday is on the 21st...

Out sick...

I don't know what kind of freakin bug I got, but I was out of service this weekend...
we were supposed to shoot, but instead I was in bed sick for these past 2 days...
These occurences happened a day after a mega-downloading of non-stop flowing beer that might have provoked my defenses to weaken and ultimetely pin me down and confine me to my bed and suffer watching hollywood romantic comedies....
OH well... Today there's no photo because I look like s**t. (I know I already looked like s**t, but it's worse when I'm sick...)
boo hoo... BUT, I'm ready to get back to editing, and hopefully finish shooting this WEDNESDAY movie really soon....
-rik

Editing daze...

Photo: Still shot extracted from the movie. Ex-DEA agent Delso Carrete in action and kickin' ass...

____________
My eyes hurt... |-)
I've been at my PC since 8am... editing scenes with Gregorio Cazares and Delso Carrete...
I also made some cool action theme songs to go with these scenes, and that was the time-consuming part...
at 6:30pm we were invited on my aunt Raquel's TV show at the local Eagle Pass station... Me and Ramiro Briones (Ash Wednesday) were interviewed. We showed the trailer for both Ash and Escape, and phone calls poured in about the flicks...
Too bad I could not reveal many questions asked... but in time, everyone will be pleasantly surprised...
We plan to begin our slew of interviews as soon as we finish the film, hopefully by the end of October.... we'll see... BTW, my eyes hurt...
Saludos a Barco

you want to play blind man?
go walk with the shephard, but me, my eyes are wide f'n open...
-Jules

Sunday Eagle Pass News

Among the throng of newspapers this Sunday, there was a well-written article about Digital Work Studios on the front page of the Eagle Pass Sunday News.
Thanks to Rex McBeath and all the guys and gals who work at the Sunday News for your support!

Out of the 365 days in the year, today is one of those 5 days that it actually rains in Eagle Pass... We are planning our last shoots for this week, so hopefully we can be finished completely with production...

WE ARE BACK!!!

Photos:

-Waris getting ready to shred the guitar.

-El Dude playing the digididooo (a weird, but cool african instrument)

-Barco, Leo and my shoe.

-AND Roger and Rik at Valhalla Studios in MTY.

__________________

Woooooooaaaahhh!!!
What a f*****ng week!
The music is simply unbelievable...
The only way to describe the music would be to tell you that it is an interpretation of the story itself.
It is not overdone with many orchestrations, it is a simple, raw blend of music that moves you.
Thanks to the many people who helped us out:
Giuliano Innocenzi
Waris Rodriguez
Fer Dude Ibarra
Rolando Garza
Freddy Galvez (for lending us the synth)

As score supervisers:
Paco Flores, Roger De Los Santos and myself.

Great job guys!
Everyone was really excited about the project, and can't wait to see it finished... neither can we...

Day 4

Photo: Dude Ibarra putting his mark on ASH WEDNESDAY. ALSO, Waris, Ricky, Rolando Garza and Paco at Valhalla Studios, making music for Capitulo Unus... yeeeeeaaaahhhhh

Yesterday
we made an amalgm of arrangements...
we concentrated on getting sad, tragic songs...
Dude Ibarra (guitar) had 3 songs written which 2 of them were hammered out.
One sounds very Mexican, and the other a more tragic surrealism that I can´t explain...
Than Rolando Garza visited us again and jumped in and performed 2 or 3 other incredibly moving songs that ranged from infinite sadness to tragedy...
We are very thankful for the people that have believed in us and in our project, especcially to all our friends in Monterrey.
Giuliano is to make some tribal drums for the action sequences, and suspense as well... so we´ll see how everything works out.

DAY 3

Well, we´re still here and kicking...
Yesterday, Waris made up a great piece for the finale narration... it sounds really cool...
after hours of putting in more and more stuff.... we were visited by Rolando Garza... who is a very interesting Opera Piano Concertist or something crazy...
After explaining the movie and showing some key scenes, he was inspired and keyed some incredible notes without an effort...
Can't wait to insert all this into the movie....
Today DUDE Ibarra is coming in to hammer out something amazing... so we'll see....

Pics coming soon....

Soundtrack DAY 1-2

Photos: Roger munching on his favorite burgers in the whole world... he says its better than Big Kahuna´s... ALSO, an empty chair for Alonso and Chicken who could not come... in honor... :-)

_________________________________________

We got here on Monday at around 9pm...

We had a great reception with carne asada and some beers... The conversation flowed from our lives in the past year to the obvious topic, and the reason of why we have come to this great city... ASH WEDNESDAY.

We told them THE WHOLE movie, and they were extremely excited to be working on this project... and we were just mutually happy to see each other...

Yesterday we started making music... we started off with drums that sound extremely tribal, but cool... today, "Dude" is bringing in a synth to create cellos, violins and other strings...

We need to create the most we can, from here to Monday... so the boiler is on, and the pressure is cookin´ ....

until next time...

Ash Soundtrack

__________________
Tomorrow we will be on our way to Monterrey, NL, Mexico.
We refuse to observe Labor Day, so we are obligated to leave the country for a week to produce the soundtrack for Ash Wednesday: Capitulo Unus...
Man, that sounds cool. sniffffff
Roger, Paco and myself will be the music supervisors.
Musicians on board will be: Waris, Giuliano Innocenzi and Fer "Dude" Ibarra...
I can't wait...
Archive Photos (2004): Waris and Giuliano making soundtrack for ESCAPE. AND Dude Ibarra (photo below) sporting his kilt and also producing the soundtrack for ESCAPE.

Comparison

Here's an example of a screen shot that has NOT been processed compared to the other picture below which has been processed digitally to give it a more cinematic feel...
As you can see it makes the image itself look more crude and raw, and very edgy...

A look back...

Photo: Screen shot from movie.
Filo (Pepe de Anda) making friends with Matias (Ricardo Gonzalez).
___________________
It's frickin' September and it has been 2 months since production started on Capitulo Unus.
Looking back, we have been very fortunate to have accomplished what we have done in 60 days...
This is all thanks to the hard work of the filmmakers that are there day-in-day-out... (you know who you are...)
I have edited a healthy amount of scenes, and they all have this grainy, dirty, bleach process... This adds so much to the look, that I even feel tempted to fiddle with EL ESCAPE DE LOS SANTOS, to make it look more filmic... but, that's a lot of work, and maybe we'll save that for the 10 year anniversary edition... :-D
Today and tomorrow are to be shooting days, and editing nights... We have to pull overtime for the making of the music... Relax!
-Ay Diosito Santo...

Editing away....

Photo: Still shot from movie. Filo Valadez (Pepe de Anda). As you can see the colors have been attenuated to a more grainy and bleach processed look. That's a really cool feature about digital. You have the liberty to change anything you want.
__________
I have been stuck in the editing room for 2 days and everything is looking REALLY good...
We still have to shoot 1 scene, 1 reshoot and some minute pickup shots... but we'll do that nearing the weekend...
I have to take "key" scenes so we can lay music on them in Monterrey next week.

Overall, the edited scenes are exceeding our expectations... however it looks like a hell of a sound job after this... there are so many gunshots, grunts, glass breaking, etc. that we have to put in... in time...

As a side note, Roger is selling his complete Zelda Collection along with his Zelda Gamecube...
"Buy it now", and get it autographed by his dog Zelda :-D

don't be a henchman!
stand on your laurels
do what no one else does
praise the good of other men for good man's sake
and when everyone else in the world follows your lead
(although a cold day in hell it will surely be)
that's when the entire world shall live in harmony
-Greg Graffin

Newspaper + Backwards thinking!

Thanks to Rex McBeath for helping us out and printing the newspaper for Scene #80....
Scene #80 is probably THE last full scene left to shoot...

We have to do the music really soon in Monterrey....

The ASH WEDNESDAY train is at full steam and I am spent.... I'm living without living, and dying without dying.... jajajajaja....
Yeeeeeeeeaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaahhhhhhh....
F*** that, when I die I'll have plenty of rest....
In the meantime... let's get back to work....
no more whining...

I almost forgot... I posted this morning the theatrical trailer for ASH WEDNESDAY backwards! You read right. BACKWARDS!... No, we wasn't... eeegggghhh... drunk... (vomit)...
NO, nothin' like that... we just thought it was fun to see it backwards... THE REASON? I have NO idea...!!!

If you don't have fun in this life, then why live?
How can hell be any worse, if life alone is such a curse? -BR

ASH Shootout!!!!!

Photo of mean mothers: Ricky, Alonso, Rojer, Cesar, Javier Hernandez, Jose, Mario, and the Diaz Brothers...
___________________
Today we shot (FINALLY!) the ASH shootout.
This shoot had been postponed yesterday, and to be honest I didn't feel like shooting it... I felt it was too difficult to assemble and get everything together, but we just got our act together and clenched our fists and just went through it.

I called J's, I called the cool dudes at the LFD warehouse and we went 12 miles out of Eagle Pass and had one of the bloodiest f******* shootouts... Sometimes it sucks, because you have to self-motivated to do all this stuff... but shit. IF IT WERE EASY. EVERYONE WOULD BE DOING IT.

We shot without Ash, but we'll shoot that tommorow...
Jorge Diaz and other guys from the LFD furniture warehouse helped us out in being Mexican Federales of the AFI agency.
ALSO, special thanks AGAIN to Javier Hernandez from J's Auto Sale's in Eagle Pass...
The shoot included MANY extras for Federal Agents as well as ASH's criminal crew...
Suffice to say that many get killed in a really cool way...
After the shoot, we went back to see dailies and Barco, chato and me were all 'mouthing' with the scenes... sniff.
I cannot wait to see the movie....
ALSO, if you want to see a REALLY cool movie today, rent Running Scared with Paul Walker... It is nothing but COOL non-stop action with a meaningful story.

A Dog's Life

Photo: Ricky, Royer, Randy Laurence, Paco and Officer Escareño
____________________
Two very important shoots yesterday...
We shot half of a missing scene with the great Randy Laurence... who helped us out as Delso Carrete's Ex-Boss at the DEA.
VERY special thanx to the Eagle Pass Police Dept., to Chief Castañeda, and ALSO to Randy Laurence for helping us out.


_________________
Photo: Dr. Lalo Chapa and Zelda

The next scene involved a very intricate planning procuedure on our part. We have been talking about this scene since Roger first talked to me about it almost a year ago...
It turned out easier than expected, but very stressful nonetheless...
The scene involved ASH Wednesday (Ramiro Briones), a ruthless Warden (played by Raul De La Cruz) and a hungry but unlucky dog (played brilliantly by Zelda, Royer's Dog)... The scene will definetely be one of the most disturbing....
VERY special thanks to Javier Hernandez and his family for their really cool house.
special thanks to Raul De La Cruz and Ash...
SUPER DUPER SPECIAL THANKS to Dr. Lalo Chapa for being onhand and looking out for Zelda.
ALSO thanks to Barco...

ALSO thanks to Grisi Torres for the bottle of Bailey's and the beer for the crew...
bottles to the ground....

Here's Zelda and Link... as you can see Zelda is alive and well.
She barked that she wished to do more movies... I'm glad. sniff.

Production Page

Photo: Dama (Barbara Del Rio) and Hector Mata (Ramiro Briones)... Crew: Alonso Wheeler, Barco De Los Santos, Ricky Mendoza and Paco Flores.
_________________
A NOTES, PICS and FACTS page is now up with fun factoids about the production.

go to: www.someonewillfall.com

Everything is falling into place.

We will have a BUSY shooting schedule this weekend, but hopefully these will be THE last scenes to shoot. YAAAAAAAAYYY. sniffffffff.

Almost there....

Photo: Still shot of the movie. Flashback scene of Hector Mata (Meme Torres)
_______________
All in all, we just need 3 full scenes to shoot and little, small, miniature but significant scenes...
We are hoping to finish by early next week...
Not bad.
We've been shooting this movie since July 1, and there's been a lot of improvements (of the script) and a couple of reshoots, but overall I believe we have done an excellent job of making sure the quality is at an even level.
Looking back, I can't believe everything that has happened since July, and actually since we finished the script.
Some of us really thought that this was just too difficult to shoot, especially with limited or no money at all...
And it was difficult, but we overcame it. COOL.
Thanks again to everyone who has helped us out along the way. sniff.
BTW: the Mana album is cooooooooool.... sniff.

everyone is looking for something
and they assume somebody else knows what it is
no one can live with the decisions of their own it seems
so they look to someone else
to tell 'em what to be
tell 'em what to wear
tell 'em what to say
tell 'em how to act and think and compel others compulsively
until the world is all like them
-Bad Religion (No Direction)

Escape + Mana

October 17 is the official release date of our first movie, EL ESCAPE DE LOS SANTOS...

And this is the official artwork for the DVD cover, so look for it in stores (Wal-Mart, Bestbuy, Blockbuster) or pre-order online at Amazon

ALSO, Today, like awaiting for a bastard child to come back...
I awaited anxiously day and night... and finally...
Yesterday at midnight Mana (one of the coolest rock bands in the world) released their new album...
and it will be looping continously for about 3 months....
This at least pumps up the crew to create a better Ash Wednesday....
turn it up!

Crudos + Shoot Final Scene

______________________________

IT WAS HOT TODAY!
and it didn't help that we drowned in alcohol the night before... I slept at 4ish AM, but the rest went home at 7am...
We had a 10am shoot... it just goes to show you how things work at Digital Work Studios... :-D

ANYWAY, we made the shoot at 11:30am... we got some starbucks double shots and some gatorades and rehydrated ourselves to normalhood...

Roger, Paco, Alonso and myself came up with the scene last night and added a shitload of stuff to it... it is going to be UNBELIEVABLE...
I really cannot wait to edit the film and see it, appreciate it, and just let it sink in... and then watch it again.

Even though we had a HUGE hangover, we still managed to get a REALLY impressive finale...

It's amazing what you can do some candles (from the dollar store), a cool place like the historic Fort Duncan (in Eagle Pass), brilliant hungover producers (Royer, Paco and myself) and brilliant actors like Ramiro Briones (Ash Wednesday) and Hector Muñoz Mijares (Shaman)...

Thanks to Chicken for the great Rodee's Fried Chicken food!

The moments of your yesterdays
are in the wake behind you
You can't assess the future
if you're living in the past
Sharpen all your senses,
face the opposition
You can overcome
with fortitude and mental might
-Bad Religion

Photo L to R: Hector Muñoz Mijares (Shaman), Ricky Mendoza (director) and Ramiro Briones (Ash Wednesday)

Still shooting...

We started to shoot at 9 pm and finished at 2 am...
but it was well worth it!
Thanks to Lalo Ueta for the use of his store!
ALSO, thanks to Robbie Flores and Sonia Valdez for their awesome performance! Shakira, shakira....

Thanks to everyone who has seen the trailer, your support and emails have been very helpful...
keep spreading the word!

Trailer

AAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHH
cool.
After months of pre-production and a month of NON-STOP production, it feels REALLY good to finally see something done...
It feels really cool to see the trailer and watch how other people react to it.
ALSO, if you think the trailer is gritty, it is NOTHING compared to the actual movie.
Thanks to everyone for spreading the word!
Let's keep it going!
YEEEEEEEAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHH!
Photo L to R: Producers Paco Flores, Alonso Wheeler, Roger De Los Santos, Roberto Rodriguez and Ricardo Mendoza

You did good! -Leon

It seems like such a long way to go
As obstacles get bigger,
prevailing winds blow stronger and the fire continues to grow
in your soul...
So be bold, let it grow, Don't let it die, Let it burn 
-Bad Religion (Let it burn) 

Tell me, can you imagine, for a second,
trying half the things, you ever wanted to,
well that's just what i do, so hooray for me...
oh, yeah, i'm not respectable, and never sensible,
i've been incredible, so damned irascible
and i like the things i do so hooray for me...
-Bad Religion (hooray for me)

Trailer + Random thoughts

We have paused shooting this weekend to make sure the trailer is in perfect condition to be released this Wednesday.
We have made a lot of changes since the first draft... so [this Wed.] enjoy!

Also, in retrospect, I cannot believe how much we learned from our first film experience with El Escape De Los Santos...

The film was [in my opinion] very good, but our minimum experience was very transparent.
Ultimately, what we have to acknowledge is to live, learn, and move on...
Also, thinking back, what helped El Escape was the cool marketing campaign on our website... this includes the poster, the site itself, the trailer... it helped us a lot in getting the film distributed nationwide...

Now this time, with Ash Wednesday, we have risked a lot of stuff...

1. First, this film is so much more expensive, and $$$ is always an issue.
2. Me and many of my friends quit their jobs in San Antonio, in order to make Ash Wednesday.
   
3. We almost lost ALL of our main actors, each of them have thier own stories... (too long for now)
4. We put a lot of trust in actors/actresses, without even having a casting.
   
5. The script is just too collosal for an independent production crew.
6. We filmed the movie in an entirely different format than EL ESCAPE (which was shot with a miniDV camera) Ash is being filmed on HD (High Definition)
7. We filmed the movie without storyboarding, not even a scene. We just filmed in a very spontaneous manner.
   

Our philosophy this time around is just "Ask and you shall receive"... he have achieved a lot by simply doing this. From casting to getting Rolls Royce's, to getting food, etc...

ALSO, on the production of the trailer, we employed the HVX-200 camera for shooting the film, AVID XPRESS PRO for editing, Adobe After effects for compositing and Adobe audition for sound. We were going to shoot using the same equipment form our previous movie, but we figured that if we want to grow as professionals, we might as well just risk it and start using unfamiliar equipment that will ultimately, make us and our film better.

The music in the trailer was made almost entirely from scratch.
I used my desk, can of starbucks double shot espresso, a wooden chair, and a door to make the music which was recorded with a digital audio recorder (Edirol R-09) and put together in Adobe Audition. I also included a song used for El Escape, but I reversed it for a cool sounding anxiety song...

Can't wait until Wednesday.
Photo: screen shot of the theatrical trailer. Alicia Bloom (played by Evangelina Akashi)

ASH Trailer launches August 16

YEEEEEEEEAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHH....
The moment of truth.
The moment that everyone has been waiting for. snifffffffffff.
The theatrical trailer is cooked and will be launching at www.someonewillfall.com on Wednesday August 16...
It reveals a very small part of the story, so this is not a spoiler kind of trailer...
It shows a lot of emotion, and I honestly believe you will be watching this trailer for days to come...
It is INCREDIBLE.
Thanks again for everyone who has contributed to Capitulo Unus (meaning Chapter One).
and thanks for believing in us, we won't dissapoint.
We still have some stuff to left over to shoot, but we will probably be done in a week and a half.
-rik

Delso Carrete's LAST LAST reshoots

Yesterday, we reshot 2 of [Delso Carrete's] (played by Alonso Wheeler) scenes to intensify everything... it was a bit hard because his lines were too long... but after a WHILE, he finally did it...
After that exhausting shoot we went to Richie's bar and drowned in beer.
Thanks to Javier Moncada for inviting us out to the bar and for the carne asada...
Photo: Delso Carrete (Alonso Wheeler)

Last Part of Scene 68

What a difficult shoot.... simple flashback scene turned into an epic moment that will leave audiences haunted....
VERY special thanks to everyone who came out.
The scene involved Ash Wednesday as a kid (Played by Meme Torres), Ash's girlfriend (played by Brenda Vazquez) and 3 bad dudes (George Bass, Tavo Landa and Toño Reyna)...

Since this was a night shoot, we got there at 9pm and wrapped at 1am... damn!

I wish I could say exactly what happens, but it would ruin the cinema experience of Capitulo Unus.

ALSO, special thanks to the coolest crew in the world: Royer, Paco, Alonso and Chicken (who is to be an official teacher today, CONGRATS!)

Until next time....
-rik

Photo: Ricardo Mendoza and Ash Wednesday (Meme Torres)

Delso Carrete Ex-DEA agent... puf-puuf

Yesterday we shot Delso's (Alonso Wheeler) last scenes... FINALLY!
He is now able to shave off his beard and live in peace.
Thanks to Delso's accelerated puberty for the help...
The scenes came out great, which we shot at AJAANA and Canayito's snack place (in Eagle Pass).
We just need 8 full scenes and like 20 simple pickup shots... we are almost there I can smell it...

Alonso's Last film EL Escape De Los Santos is to be released October 17 nationwide. You can Pre-Order here

Special features include:
-Feature film in widescreen format
-Behind the Escape featurette
-Behind the Effects featurette
-Behind the Score featurette
-Subtitled in English
-Theatrical trailer

Thanks to all of our friends for your support.
-rik
Photo from L to R: Fred Cisneros (who plays Gregorio Cazares) and Alonso Wheeler (Delso Carrete)

Happy Birthday PACO!

Happy Birthday to our friend/producer/heavy-drinker Paco Flores... Aug. 7
Hip-hip-hoooray

Gregorio Cazares!

Very cool day.
Today, we shot with the fiercest assasin in Mexico.
The art in killing is back.
Fred Cisneros (who plays Gregorio Cazares) knocked it out of the park and gave us an incredible show... the shots look very crude and amazingly painful....
This looks like trailer material....
We started early at 9am and ended at 5pm.... Thanks to Fred and Hector Hernandez for making the trip to Eagle Pass a memorable shoot.
Photo: Gregorio Cazares (Fred Cisneros), Delso Carrete (Alonso Wheeler) and Ricardo Mendoza.

MATIAS

Yesterday, we finally finished EVERY single scene that involved our main character Matias....
Quite an accomplishment... we actually never thought this day would come.... sniff, sniff.....
Almost there. Almost there.
TODAY, We shoot Gregorio Cazares, the fiercest killer in Mexico.
He is not sent to kill, he is sent to torture, rape, humiliate.... sick f***.
-Delso Carrete

Nothing.

I did nothing. I did absolutely nothing, and it was everything I thought it could be.
-Peter Gibbons

DAMA

I really have to say that today's shoot, was the most difficult, because of the 100 degree + summer days... HOWEVER we finished everything that we needed and EVERY second shot was priceless...
We shot with Dama (Guadalupe Torres), Ash (Ramiro Briones), Filo (Pepe de Anda) and 2 cool extras (Karina and Claudia)...
Very cool day, even more satisfying were the beers enjoyed after a hard working day...
YUM!

Reshoots and added scenes

The whole operation was up and running by 7 am... Everyone got their stuff and got together at AJAANA (Fort Duncan in Eagle Pass)...
Ash, Alicia, Delso, Matias, Jessica and even Filo were all there for the shoot...
An incredible day of incredible footage.
We reshot Delso and Alicia's dialogue, which this time was dynamite!
Amazing reshoot! The scene was rewritten and clicked extremely well.
I'm glad we took the time to redo that, and that everyone was willing to do it for the good of the movie....
Everyone kicked ass and gave 110%, I cannot believe the amount of talent that we have been "blessed" with (excuse the diety) .
Tomorrow we shoot with Dama. CANNOT WAIT.
rik
Photo: (L to R) Matias (Ricardo Gonzalez), Ash Wednesday (Ramirio Briones), Ricardo Mendoza (Director), Brittani Harmeyer (Boom Operator), Paco Flores (Producer), Roger De Los Santos (Producer) at AJAANA (Fort Duncan, Eagle Pass, TX)

San Antonio shoots

Paco and myself traveled to San Antonio to get some shots...
We got lost on our first shoot and could not find the wide shot of the city....
However, we finally got to Di's beautiful house at 3pm and started shooting her scene along with a cool death flashback scene...
Also, we filmed with Eva going to the SA airport.... very cool...
Very good day full of production value!
Thanks to Di and Roy Galvan for their hospitality!
AND to Eva and Britt, for their hospitality as well!!!

Saturday's shooting many shootings

Holy shit.... Here's a pic from Saturday's shoot... the scene involved ex-DEA agent Delso Carrete (Alonso Wheeler) blowing away paedophiles left and right...
Very Cool...
Thanks to Juan Tamez, Ozzie Hernandez, Diana Mendoza, Rodolfo De Los Santos, Alex Tamez...
Photo: Paco Flores (producer), Ricardo Mendoza (Director/Grip) putting makeup on Christy Gomez (who plays Jessica)

More pics...

Today we captured audio of gunshots with the EPPD (Eagle Pass PD)...
Thanks to Chief Castañeda and Henry Cardona for taking us to the range...

60%

.... shooting Ash has been nothing short of an incredible roller coaster...
We need less than 40 scenes to shoot out of 100... YIKES!
But it is looking INCREDIBLE!
I cannot wait to see this film.... it is going to be amazing....
Today we shot with Filo (Pepe de Anda), Matias (Ricardo Gonzalez) and Jessica (Christy Gomez)...
Where Filo drops them off at the bus station and where Mat and Jess are inside the bus....
it was emotionally draining, but very rewarding at the end... everyone gave 110%...
here's a pic from afterwards....
ALSO my wife got a call yesterday from the college... She's to be a full-fledged college professor.... COOOOOOOL....

Filo y Matias

We are back in the grind shooting some "eerie" scenes with Filo (Pepe de Anda) and Matias (Ricardo Gonzalez)... tonight we shoot yet another death scene with Ash Wednesday (Ramiro Briones) himself...
more to come....
Photo: Ricardo Mendoza (Director) shooting at AJAANA in Eagle Pass, Tx

Shooting ASH

We have been filming steadily since July 1.
It has been an incredible 19 days FULL of ups and downs (but more ups).
The first week was mostly small scenes that involved 1 actor shoots or small setups...
From July 8th to the 14th has been one of the most demanding and most amazing shoots we have experienced.
The script is overwhelming to shoot, it has been quite a challenge, however we have pulled through the most difficult scenes...
WOW!!!!
This movie is going to be INCREDIBLE.
stay tuned for pics in the coming days + 2 minute trailer coming soon...
-rik
(Photo from L to R: Ricardo Gonzalez, Brittani Harmeyer, Alonso Wheeler, Ricardo Mendoza, Eva Akashi, Ramirio Briones, Roberto Rodriguez, Alex (primo de Paco), Paco Flores)

Filming pushed back slightly...

We are ready to shoot...
as of now we are placing characters with actors, and still looking for the perfect locations...
Thanks to all for your continued support and patience...
We are slated to begin in the next 2 weeks (approx. June 26 in Eagle Pass, then move on in July to San Antonio)...
We will be posting more info on this site...
Thanks!
RM

Test shots...

Finally, progress of ASH looks faster and faster....
Our main character Ash Wednesday, bears a scar on his forehead.
We tested and tried to emulate the scar of the character on Alonso Wheeler (Producer/Writer), with the help of DWS's Joel Gonzalez (Producer/Special FX), we got close to what we want in the film.
NOTE: Alonso will not play Ash Wednesday, he volunteered to be our lab rat.
ALSO, we are currently planning the whole film, checking out locations and linking actors to the characters on the script.
If you haven't been contacted for a part DO NOT PANIC we are still in that process, so hopefully we'll start contacting people by the end of next week.
ALSO, quick promo shots will be revealed by next week at www.someonewillfall.com.
These promo pics are of the main characters.

QUICK ESCAPE NEWS:
ESCAPE is now available in San Antonio, Houston, New York, New Jersey and other cities nationwide through Time Warner Video On Demand... so demand it out today!

Back to roots...

Well...
I have moved (again) from San Antonio to Eaglewood (formerly called Eagle Pass)...
crap, moving sucks...
We are slated to begin Ash shooting mid June... If you haven't been called for a part DO NOT panic!
We are still in that process and should have something done for early next week...
Thanks to all for your patience!
Here's a pic from my moving experience...
Me and Alonso... Roger is behind the camera...

Express-News Article

On Wednesday (coincidentally), May 3, the express-news printed a great article on myself, and Digital Work Studios.
Here it is if you missed it.
Thanks to Adolfo Pesquera (E-N writer) for writing and believing in us.
That's all it takes folks.
Belief.
Oh, and on "Capitulo Unus"... I'm still writing and waiting for our camera to come in...
The new Ash site is now up and running at:
www.someonewillfall.com